‘Godzilla’ Adds Ken Watanabe, But What About Those Producers?

Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures today announced final principal casting for Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla, which begins filming today in Vancouver. Ken Watanabe, repped by WME and ROAR, joins Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn, and Bryan Cranston in the reboot that is slated for a 3D release on May 16, 2014. Edwards is helming from a script by Max Borenstein, Frank Darabont, and Dave Callaham. But the producer roll call is where things get awkward: Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are confirmed as producing with Mary Parent and Brian Rogers, but there’s no mention of Roy Lee, Dan Lin, and Doug Davison, the trio of producers who were iced out of the project they claim they brought to Legendary in the first place. Back in January dueling suits were filed between the trio and Legendary after the studio sought to remove them from the project with a mere $25,000 payout. Lee, Lin, and Davison countered with their own cross complaint accusing Legendary of breach of contract and seeking millions in compensatory damages, screen credit, and participation in sequels, prequels, or further remakes or compensation thereof.

Godzilla marks the second time Hollywood has attempted to bring the iconic Japanese monster to screens, after Sony/Columbia’s 1998 Roland Emmerich-helmed pic of the same name tried translating the 59-year-old Japanese franchise. Alex Garcia and Patricia Whitcher are executive producing this one with Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira. Warner Bros is releasing the blockbuster worldwide except in Japan, where Toho will distribute.